xml-dev - Re: Separation of formatting...

[Sean Mc grath <digitome@iol.ie>]

[Rick Jelliffe]
>
>Developers should be aware that if their publication requires more than
>just a straight-forward flow of dependence between the various structures
>(which are concurrently present in their publication) they may have to
>spend a lot more development effort. A simple flow of dependence with
>no reverse feeding back is easier to implement.
>

Even reverse feeding has its limits. I suspect that no amount
of algorithm driven formatting will ever produce the same result
as a skilled human. IOW, there are limits to how good a pure
SGML/XML driven formatting system can be. Thusly we need processing
instructions and format oriented markup.

I recently grappled with a large piece of legislation on paper
which proved easy enough to model but I gave up trying to re-produce
the "look" of the paper version. Individual sections exhibited
clear signs of aesthetic tweaking. Infuriating because the darn
thing looks so much nicer than mine yet I cannot determine why:-(

To see this aesthetic effect in its extremes I heartily recommend
"Le Ton beau de Marot" by Douglas Hofstadter. For example, according
to the introduction, the section layout of chapter 2 was
heavily influenced by the avoidence of descender characters in
the first word!

Sean Mc Grath
http://www.digitome.com

"there are two types of people in the world. Those who
think the world consists of two types of people, and
those who don't"


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